Last week, La Russophobe reported on a severe outbreak of hemhorragic fever in European Russia. This week, there is more bad news to report. Scientific American reports that "Russia has recorded its first cases this year of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in dead domestic birds, the country's animal and plant health agency said on Monday. Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement the virus was detected in dead birds found in three domestic yards in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. 'Yes, it's H5N1,' a spokesman for the agency said, when asked to confirm the strain of the virus. Rosselkhoznadzor said measures were being taken to prevent the spread of infection in the three settlements where cases were found -- Labinsk, Upornaya and Borodinskaya."

As usual, the even worse news was the classic neo-Soviet denial from Russian officals that there was any problem whatsoever.